First, I have a Surface Pro 2 with Windows 8.1 and I absolutely love it! It is the most versatile, powerful, easy to use and flexible pad/laptop in existence. Windows 8 or 8.1 (I didn't notice much of a difference) has worked great right from the start. I love the clean icon menu. I do the heavy lifting on the desktop. Now, if I was a Mac user, I might lose myself in all the features and flexibility. I sympathize with those that have little use for a full laptop operating system. Those users go for a Mac and are very happy. Myself, I can't see myself limiting my use of a computer to that extent. besides, a Mac doesn't have touch screen or a stylus, and you can't instantly have two apps on screen at once to review and note, etc. The same argument goes for iOS and Android or Windows. I can't live without these features because I use them. One is not better than the other, one just does a lot more than the other (Windows).

I bought this all singing all dancing PC 9 months ago mainly for the SQL server apps I need to run but it came with Win8, now on Win 8.1. I am just about tearing my hair out using it so I am thinking about dumping it for just a data backup system and moving to a MAC Mini - My 2010 Macbook pro already runs Windows better and faster than this Lenovo with 12g ram and 2T disk + windows 8. If only I could just load Mac OSX on it legally!

My SQL server apps will run just fine in Coherence view like they are native.

And then there is Outlook 2013 - bad enough on the desktop with that white/grey/wased out blue look. Try it online with MS365 and it is even worse. The UI people must have been away sick when this was designed. If only we could still download Office 2010 with 365!

Windows 8.1 is very fast to load. However, it is slow to use. Too many unwanted popups that slow it further. Most of the screen shots are not useful for me, and they keep coming up when you don't want them. Navigation is slow and clumsy compared to XP. Probably great for teenagers and those who do not need to work fast. The protection software has to be quite good, since Windows is always under atttack, and these programs are more expensive. Many system crashes, some of which are the result of program protection software. I would like to try other platforms, but I am stuck with Windows compatible software. Maybe I will try Apple next.

The sooner MS can throw out the 8.x series - and 9.x if it's slated to be a mere imrovement on 8.x - the quicker they can get back to devoted Windows users. I've been using it since Windows 3.1, and there has never been a fiasco as bad as Windows 8.x since Windows ME - if anyone remembers that. True, Vista was a close third, but 8.x really has to go down in the Windows ME and "losers" hall of fame.

As a remedy, meanwhile, all of the management team that did not oppose 8.x changes while they were ongoing needs to be re-assigned. Sales Department might be a good re-learning tool for them. This should start with the then-CIO.

Secondly, they need to recall all 8.x machines, offer free "downgrades" to Windows 7 for machines that can handle it, and a discount on brand new Windows 7 machines for those stuck with "ducks" that are good only with Windows 8.x. Then, they need to announce that Windows 7 is being reinstated for the foreseeable future, until they work up something like a Windows 10 that will be an improvement on Windows 7 - not a debacle. MS could ease it's own pain by doing something along the lines of the above.

Your post is a bag full of chit. Almost everything you state is a falsehood, not a thread of truth or accuracy. If you don't like it don't use it, or if work forces it on you, sorry you have no choice...maybe you should find a new line of work. In the meanwhile, don't bother ranting thru illogical posts.

Everyone is not playing games, nor do they have a smart phone or tablet. MS is killing itself by throwing

Everyone in the same boat.............Win 7 pro was almost too much but now it was the best they were ever going to do...........All these complaints including this one will fall on deaf ears....Thats the Microsoft Way....A slow crashing plane since the beginning

You said: "Were you around when they went from the old Windows 3.1 to Windows 95? That was a pretty major change, as I recall, and took a lot of getting used to..."

I came to Japan in 1995 when Windows 95 was 'almost' brand-new. My Japanese wife was amazed that I could 'read' Japanese and maneuver thru the win 95 interface, in a language that was completely foreign to me, the very first time we visited Akihabara together. NB: My last operating system at home, in English, was NOT Windows 95, but the last Win3.x over DOS 6.x. That suggests that the change-over was virtually seamless to me, someone who had been interacting with computers <indirectly> since 1975 and actually programming them by from a keyboard by 1977. (This was in 'the bad old days' when micro-computers and color monitors didn't even exist!) For my first IBM computer in Japan, I used a spare set of DOS6 and Win3 diskettes given to me by an Indian computer engineer living in the same building (God bless him!)

Win8 is 'clunky'. I bought a new computer with Japanese Win8 installed...I need an English-language system for my work and I thought I could just install my Win7, but NO! UEFI is another one of those bugbears that MS is so famous for! [I know it's not MS's fault!] But can you imagine the hassles and the many hours of getting Win8 into English, downloading the 'free' 8.1 upgrade and finding that the whole system has reverted to Japanese? This does NOT happen with Apple products, EVER! (Experience: several iPhones, an iPad, a MacBook Pro for my wife... )

I've used MS since DOS 1.1... and it is nothing about productivity, it is just bored and socially USELESS coders looking for more ways to piss off the public, charge EXTREME FEES for GARBAGE and retraining on a level that, from a business point of view, is nothing but a total waste of money and resources that could better be applied to ACTUAL BUSINESS EXPENSES.

They don't make windows for businesses. They make it for mere GAMERS; 10-25 year old children that don't know what computers actually are.

When they dropped the commandline interface for this construct of a Heiroglyphic Nightmare, they lost touch with intelligence and usefulness. Since Windows began, it was a memory pig and in the 'tradition' of windows, W8 is nothing short of that.

It's GARBAGE, they can't even sell the damned thing and the UPGRADE to win8.1? I've known very few that could install it due to that ONE bug they don't bother to fix.

Argue if you want, kid, as you most likely will in your ignorance (dictionary meaning). Just remember, W8 is so bad that MS has reduced the warranty to a mere NINETY DAYS, after that you have to PAY for their LAZY ASSES to help you! (which at last quote was 150 USD - a mere 2 weeks ago)

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.